Portfolio

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

What I am currently (re) reading - Remotely Controlled by Aric Sigman

I think this might be the third of forth time I have read this book. The book is about how watching TV could be, no, IS damaging our health and our lives. I am reading it again because I often find myself slipping back into old habits of coming home and immediately putting the TV on as a default form of entertainment. When I read through the facts, research and studies on the effects of television on the body and mind it makes me re-address what I am doing and work harder at resisting the temptation to put the TV on yet again.
Another reason I am re-reading this book is because of Boris, (not his real name) my one-and-a-half year old son. This is the first time I have read the book since he was born and I had been putting the TV on during breakfast, lunch and dinner as a habit. Remembering how damaging this can be has helped me get us eating at the dinner table and interacting more, rather than sitting in silence staring at a box. And more importantly resisting the urge to use TV as an cheap and easy babysitter when there are things that I want to do for myself.

If you like being outraged then this is definitely a book for you, there are lots of shocking statistics and information to make you angry about television producers, advertisers and the government, and what makes it a really good read is that you can feel empowered at the end of it because all you have to do in protest is turn off the TV!

Here are a few of the shocking facts that Sigman includes:

We spend on average four hours a day doing nothing but watching television - that's more than one full 24-hour day a week. By the age of 75, most of us will have spent more than 12-and-a-half years of 24 hour days doing nothing but watching pure television.

Children who watch television at ages one and three have a significantly increased risk of developing such attentional problems [ADHD] by the time they are seven. For every hour of television a child watches per day, there is a nine per cent increase in attentional damage.

The more TV children view, the more likely they are to be overweight. Reduction in TV viewing constitutes the single most effective way for children to lose weight.

A study on suicidal behaviour and "self-harm" at the Warneford Hospital, Oxford recently found that children learn about the act of suicide and form concepts surrounding it following exposure to television.

I could go on for ages because there are so many fascinating facts that simply blow the "everything in moderation" view out of the water. I highly recommend this book if you want to get more free time for yourself and your children and be a healthier, happier person! What have you got to lose? Actually you don't need to read the book, just turn off the TV!

What are you reading right now? Have you read "Remotely Controlled"? What did you think of it?